“The individual parishes will be tasked with presenting their communities (its activities, culinary specialties, regional outfits). The second component of the final will be a fitness competition, during which both younger and older will have the chance to compete in disciplines specified as moving on time, throwing a doctor's ball or throwing a basket.
The winner of the competition will receive sports equipment vouchers and will be presented on ekai.pl website. There is besides a peculiar prize for the manager of Caritas Poland and a prize for the most digital parish.”
The first quote of this text comes from the Gospel of Matthew. The next 2 are fragments of the announcement on the Polish Episcopal Conference website.
So what are the parishes today?
According to KEP - “active”, that is, charitable (in the beginning we usually mention the most crucial things?), evangelizing (or alternatively inventive specified initiatives, which does not always have much in common with evangelization), promoting a healthy way of life (at 1 time the Church promoted mortification...) and building communities through local communities (the parish priest is to be “the parish priest of all parishioners”, these believers and unbelievers? or the parish priest of Jesus Christ, a shepherd and a guide?)
And this is what our Polish KEP does erstwhile the Church suffers from a teardrop on those who, for example, support the blasphemous documentary “Fiducia supplicans” and those who inform against it. erstwhile gays are blessed, divorcees are admitted to the sacraments, we reward the most digital parish and present a peculiar prize to the Caritas Director.
In this full confusion of today's world, we are increasingly missing the point, and since it should be sense we are trying to look for it in what is tangible and available here and now, in the criteria of this world. And we don't talk anymore and we don't perceive to the future world, just the planet we have here. We don't talk anymore and we don't hear about heaven and hell due to the fact that it's unfashionable, comic and childish, and hell is most likely empty due to the fact that God is merciful, so why bother?
But no, no substance what we effort to tell ourselves, hell inactive exists and it's not empty. Jesus himself speaks of this in the Gospel (Mt 5:22.29.30; Mt 18.9; Mt 23.33 and so on), there are besides visions of hell in the Marian apparitions, specified an experience has been experienced by people gathered around the visionaries of firebirds or shepherds of Fatima. There is besides a imagination of St. Faustina, described in her “Diary”.
So hell unfortunately exists and threatens all of us if we don't convert. And this is 1 of the foundations of our faith, due to the fact that if hell didn't exist, what precisely would we request religion for? For believing men are neither easier nor easier in life, nor richer than others. Believing and following God in this life is so that 1 day we can spend eternity with Him. If we forget this, then we begin to uncertainty and see no more meaning in fasting (there is little and little of this practice in the Church), mortifications (now promotes a “healthy way of life”), prayer (we are so busy...), pilgrimages (we have the right to vacation, leave, relax, relax...), in general in observing even the Decalogue, for what, if we go to heaven anyway?
In the eyes of today’s world, for example, specified a life and care for a sick kid is besides much to bear, so no 1 has the right to force anyone to do so. And what reasons do we gotta fight specified views? In fact, we have fewer if we ourselves are deprived of the chance to preach the fact that the execution of an unarmed individual is forever in danger of being condemned!
Come on, like marriage. present the planet asks rhetorically: why should you work on a matrimony with individual who doesn't fit you, annoys you, turns out to be a “mistake”? Why carry the burden erstwhile you know individual you're much better with, just perfect? Again, we have small convincing hedonist arguments around us if we reject the fact that we can go to hell for violating our sacred matrimony oath!
Even the sense of religion at school, the sense of confession of children and young people is being questioned today... due to the fact that what's the point in revealing to a alien your mistakes and weaknesses if we don't think we can go to hell anymore, if we don't regret, we won't kneel down and ask for forgiveness?
Finally, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why was that so important, the most crucial thing in the world? due to the fact that if it wasn't for us, no of us would have seen heaven! Our eternity would be the abyss at best, if not hell. And God came, lived among us, died, and risen to save us from this hell! And for us, Easter is simply a bunny and a saint, possibly a palm contest, due to the fact that it's a tradition, and nothing else! Yet erstwhile Jesus died the earth was shaking, the dead rose from the graves, the full planet trembled from the acquisition!
Every day we make many tiny choices and each of them must be made in the light of the consciousness of eternity waiting for us, all single tiny choice. all specified choice shapes us in a returnable way and affects our next choices. 1 infidelity, 1 lie or a tiny deception change our heart, figuratively speaking - make a place of black or even grey appear on the white of the pure soul. And a somewhat grey heart will make a different choice than a white and pure heart!
If a ship were to sail from Lisbon to fresh York, it would gotta set a course. What if on a cruise he changes that course by 0.1 degrees? At that distance, it will scope a location 10 kilometres [10 km] from its first destination. Is that a lot or a small bit? Jesus says that you enter heaven through “the narrow gate; can a narrow gate be 10 kilometers wide? And human life is mostly a longer road than the fewer 1000 kilometers that have been flowing in a fewer weeks, so the distance from the mark will yet be greater.
That is why our spiritual course cannot deviate even by a 0.1 degree, even by tiny decisions and tiny concessions, for only God knows how far we will depart and whether we will go to heaven!
Salt poured on the furnace wound, hurts, takes peace. Are we inactive salt? Are we recalling the most crucial things, though uncomfortable? Or have we completely lost our taste?
